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Moving to New York to avoid state death taxes? Really. John McManus, an estate lawyer in New Providence, N.J., has a retired client pulling in $500,000 a year in income, with second homes in Florida and the Hamptons, who is planning to change his residence from New Jersey to his New York house in the Hamptons. Driving the decision: the sweeping changes New York made to its estate tax regime this year.

“When your bordering state is telling you, ‘Come on over!’ the pitch is compelling,” McManus says. “If New York has a more welcoming tax scheme, then people will say, ‘Let’s call me a New York resident.’” McManus says that he and his wife might make the New York move in retirement themselves; they already have a place in the West Village they rent out for now.

The tally of death tax jurisdictions remains the same for 2015—19 states plus the District of Columbia--but eight states are ushering in changes in 2015. The states are lessening the death tax bite by increasing the amount exempt from the tax, indexing the exemption amount for inflation, and eliminating “cliff” provisions that tax the first dollar of an estate. Added to the mix, there’s action afoot in New Jersey to keep up with the pack. “[Gov. Chris] Christie can’t run for President with the worst estate tax exemption in the country,” says New York City elder lawyer Bernard Krooks, adding, “He has to say he tried.”

First, here’s the current state of the law. The federal estate tax exemption of $5 million per person, indexed for inflation, is now permanent. For 2015, the exemption will be $5.43 million, up from $5.34 million in 2014, predicts tax research publisher Wolters Kluwer, CCH. That means up to $5.43 million of an individual’s estate will be exempt from federal estate tax, with a 40% tax rate applied to any excess over the exemption amount. By contrast, states with estate taxes typically exempt far less per estate from their tax and impose a top rate of 16%. As in the federal system, bequests to a spouse are tax-free.

New York and Maryland made the biggest changes. The Maryland legislature acted first. The new law gradually increases the amount exempt from the state estate tax from $1 million this year, to $1.5 million in 2015, $2 million in 2016, $3 million in 2017, and $4 million in 2018. Finally, in 2019 it will match the federal exemption which is projected to be $5.9 million.

Still there’s a big catch in Maryland for some: even if no estate tax is due, depending whom you leave your assets to at death, a separate inheritance tax may be assessed. Spouses, children (and their spouses and children), parents, and siblings are all exempt from the state inheritance tax, but a niece or aunt or friend, for example, would owe the inheritance tax at a rate of 10%. Maryland and New Jersey are the only two states that have an inheritance tax in addition to an estate tax.

New York’s sweeping changes were instituted immediately, doubling its exemption amount from $1 million for deaths before April 1, 2014 to $2,062,500 for deaths from April 1, 2014 through April 1, 2015. Like in Maryland but on a faster timetable, the New York exemption is set to rise gradually through 2019 to eventually match the federal exemption. By April 1, 2017 the New York exemption will be $5,250,000.